Wheelchairs are often prescribed to patients that have lower body (e.g., pelvic or leg) injury or illness and/or impaired nervous system control of the lower body. Accordingly, the patients are often confined to their wheelchairs for long periods of time. Further, many of these patients are unable to shift their position on the wheelchair. For these reasons, the same regions of the patient, such as the posterior region of the upper legs and the buttocks tend to remain in contact with the wheelchair for prolonged periods. Accordingly, this continuous contact between these regions of the patient and the wheelchair can cause problems for the tissues of these regions. For instance, contact pressure, or pressure in combination with shear and/or friction, between these regions and the wheelchair can decrease circulation to and from these tissues, or cause muscle cramping or other tension or stress. Also, the contact can reduce or prevent heat dissipation from these tissues and cause overheating of the tissues. Alternatively or additionally, the contact may reduce or prevent water evaporation away from these regions. Over time, these conditions can cause various problems to the tissues, such as decubitus ulcers, skin degeneration, excessive bacterial and/or fungal populations, positioning issues (problems with the back, hips, and/or spine), shear factor issues (starting and stopping, turning, friction, jarring, etc., mostly behind the legs under the hamstring to the knee area), among other issues.
The described implementations offer the capacity to be a preventative to the number of body issues one could suffer from being in a conventional wheelchair. The present concepts address these health issues and thereby not only save lives but contribute to a higher quality of life.